Sorry for the massive delay on the posting. I was on a cruise and had no way to write/post. I also am being impatient and have decided to cut their trip by a few chapters. It was a lovely vacation for those of you who were wondering, and now I return to writing. Enjoy ^.^
Chapter 7: To Ba Sing Se
"Suki, wake up!" Sokka whispered as he gently shook her shoulder.
"5 more minutes." Suki mumbled.
Sokka chuckled, "Usually it's me who wants 5 more minutes. Come on, get up. We need to leave soon if we're going to get to Ba Sing Se by tonight."
"We can sleep in the woods, I just want to sleep." Suki said more forcefully.
It was dawn; the sun was rising over the walls of the city. Normally Sokka wasn't one for waking up early, but he needed his beauty sleep as much as Suki.
Sokka was spooning with Suki, but he rolled over and sat on the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes and he stretched his arms over his head. The stretching was followed by a yawn and Sokka standing up. He walked around to the foot of the bed and quickly ripped the covers off.
"You. Suck." Suki said as she sat up. Suki gave Sokka a death stare; he just laughed.
"That's fine, but I am going to suck my way to Ba Sing Se." Sokka laughed at his own joke.
Suki didn't reply; she simply rolled out of bed and stood up. Her hand was covering up her bruised ribs.
"How's the ribcage? Feeling any better?" Sokka inquired.
"Well not much better at all, in fact it's a little worse." Suki lifted her hand to expose a myriad of reds, blues, and purples over a raised section of skin.
Sokka's eye twitched. "That looks really gross." He laughed lightly.
"And it hurts too!" Suki said cheerily. "Along with my head and throat, and pretty much the entire me hurts."
"Do you want to stay another day here?" Sokka asked, temporarily pausing putting on his shirt.
"No, I should be fine. I mean I've had worse. I'm just being a bit of a baby. I did it to myself, and it was well worth it!" Suki laughed lightly.
Sokka's face looked like Chang's when Azula told him they would dominate the world as the fire nation's most fearsome couple.
"Hello? Earth to Sokka!" Suki waved her hand in front of his face.
"How is that well worth it?" Sokka asked, perplexed.
"It was on my top 10 most fun things I've ever done!" Suki laughed as she walked past Sokka to get her clothes. She picked out a loose fitting shirt and a pair of pants. She winced as she bent down to pick them up.
"Are you sure you are ok to travel?" Sokka asked.
"Yes Sokka. I will be fine. I know I've lied before, but I have no reason to lie to you now. I understand if you don't believe me, but I will be just fine. Promise." She said as she walked over to him, clothes in hand. She placed her free hand on his chest and stood on her tip toes to seal her promise with a kiss.
Sokka smiled as Suki walked into the bathroom. He always liked getting hugs and kisses from Suki.
Suki washed her face and brushed her hair. She put it up half up half down, but not in the traditional fire nation bun she had worn it in for so long.
Sokka put his hair up in the traditional southern water tribe wolf tail. Since the war had ended he shaved the sides of his head again, no longer looking like a member of the fire nation.
Suki was ready to go at about the same time as Sokka.
"I guess we don't have time for a bath. Crap! We forgot laundry." She said, annoyed.
"Sorry Suki. We'll just have to wash our clothes in Ba Sing Se." Sokka said as he left the room.
Suki shut the divider behind Sokka. "What did I do?" Sokka asked, playing the victim.
"Nothing, I'm just changing my underwear." Suki replied.
"What, I can't see my girlfriend au natural?" Sokka laughed.
"I don't care, but I don't want the whole city of Omashu to be able to. I mean the whole back wall is windows!" Suki explained.
"You do have a good point." Sokka said, convinced.
Suki finished changing a few moments later and pulled back the divider. "Afraid I passed out again?" She laughed, followed by a few coughs. "Aw dammit!" Suki exclaimed.
"What? Do you think you're cough, cold thing has come back?" Sokka asked concernedly.
"Yeah, and I'm pissed. I thought it had magically gone away. Apparently not." Suki said reluctantly.
Sokka approached Suki. He raised his hand to her forehead and checked the temperature. "Well you don't have a fever. You should be fine to travel. Just try not to infect me." Sokka laughed.
Suki took his hand off her forehead and held it in hers. "I know I'm safe to travel, but I have a question."
Sokka raised his eyebrows as if to ask her what her question was.
"How are we going from Omashu to Ba Sing Se in one day?" Suki asked, perplexed.
"Originally we weren't, remember? We were going to stop in the mining village, Senlin village, and Gaipan, but I think that will take too long, and we can just fly over the edge of the desert. If we have to stay the night in the woods, we have supplies, so it shouldn't be a big deal." Sokka said, mapping it out in the air with his hands.
"That was needlessly complicated, but sounds doable." Suki said. "It shouldn't be too strenuous on me because Appa is the one doing the work."
"Good." Sokka replied, going over to kiss Suki on the forehead. "The Serpent's Pass shouldn't be as hard this time around either. Thank Aang for Appa."
Suki sighed a sigh of relief at the thought of not having to go through The Serpent's Pass the hard way. "Shouldn't we be leaving soon? I mean it's only a little past dawn, but it's a long long way to Ba Sing Se."
"And the girls in the city, they look so pretty!" Sokka sang.
Suki gave him a dirty look.
"You'll be there too! I won't look at any other girls; I'll be blind like Toph." Sokka teased.
Suki laughed and moved from the doorway where they had been standing, to her bag. She put the dirty clothes that she had been holding into the bag. She winced when she bent down and again as she stood up with the bag slung over her shoulder.
"Need me to carry your bag?" Sokka offered, holding out his hand.
"No thanks, I'll be fine." Suki replied.
The two waved goodbye to their lovely room, and walked down the hall into the great foyer. Bumi, Appa, and several servants were waiting there for them.
"I have had my servants pack food supplies for the next 2 days, just in case you have to land and stay the night. I wish you luck and safe traveling on your way to Ba Sing Se." Bumi said flatly.
"Thank you very much for your hospitality Bumi. It is appreciated greatly." Suki replied, handing her bag to one of the servants.
"Yes, thank you, everything was wonderful and we couldn't have asked for anything better." Sokka said, also handing his bag to a servant.
"Old people like company, so it was fun for me too! Even though I only saw you a couple of times throughout the past few days, I still enjoyed your company." Bumi said in his unique manner.
"Well we best be on our way, we do have an extremely long way to go." Sokka said as he helped Suki onto Appa.
Bumi nodded understandingly and opened the massive doors for them to leave. Suki and Sokka waved goodbye and thanked everybody again as Appa walked out the doors. Appa took a few steps and they were soaring their way to Ba Sing Se.
Yay finally finished chapter 7. I had done most of it before leaving for my cruise. In case you wanted to know I went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. I had loads of fun and I highly recommend cruising for your next vacation. I decided to write a sequel to this story and I hope all of you read it. I haven't even started working on it so don't get too excited ^.^. It's cool, I'm excited for it too! Wow, I'm lame. So anyway, I'm going to watch Glee now. Adios!